"Wild Times"

[hester_prynne]

Wild times indeed.
Cecil you are right, we are in for some wild times.
Corporations are human beings? Did they redefine human beings and I missed it? What is their definition? Am I a corporation?
The election of Brown to Kennedy's seat.
A masterbateful coup, on the Republican's part, reminiscent of Palin's appearance. They brought her in too soon.
Brown called himself an independent, rarely used the R word.
What kind of self sufficiency dissiplines do I need to begin working on in order to tolerably preserve myself through these wild and mostly sad times....
What can I do about these things?
H

[mtmynd]

Money talks. It always has.

But now SCOTUS has given money the vote

by a Five Man Band of Court Jesters under their Justice Robes;

the continuation of so-called Conservative Values marches onwards

to the beat of Corporate Rulers who will now own all votes...

[hester_prynne]

This is real tragedy unfolding. This is your demise!!!!!!!!!!
Stilltrucking, I guess I just didn't really understand it's possibility of actually happening. I had more faith in this country...until now. You were right to be worried, and I missed it and I am sorry for that, for my disbelief that it could ever really happen. I should have known better.
I hope everyone will read the thread in mystic arts regarding the supreme court's decision to enact facism into law.
Cecil wrote a very powerful and spot on piece about what this means.
H

[stilltrucking]

I don’t think there are any sinister persons deliberately trying to rob people of their freedom. But I do think, first of all, that there are a number of impersonal forces which are pushing in the direction of less and less freedom, and I also think that there are a number of technological devices which anybody who wishes to use can use to accelerate this process of going away from freedom, of imposing control." A. Huxley

Impersonal forces, is that like the invisible hand of the market place?

[hester_prynne]

Published: January 22, 2010

How loud do the alarms have to get? There is an economic emergency in the country with millions upon millions of Americans riddled with fear and anxiety as they struggle with long-term joblessness, home foreclosures, personal bankruptcies and dwindling opportunities for themselves and their children.


The door is being slammed on the American dream and the politicians, including the president and his Democratic allies on Capitol Hill, seem not just helpless to deal with the crisis, but completely out of touch with the hardships that have fallen on so many.

While the nation was suffering through the worst economy since the Depression, the Democrats wasted a year squabbling like unruly toddlers over health insurance legislation. No one in his or her right mind could have believed that a workable, efficient, cost-effective system could come out of the monstrously ugly plan that finally emerged from the Senate after long months of shady alliances, disgraceful back-room deals, outlandish payoffs and abject capitulation to the insurance companies and giant pharmaceutical outfits.

The public interest? Forget about it.

With the power elite consumed with its incessant, discordant fiddling over health care, the economic plight of ordinary Americans, from the middle class to the very poor, got pathetically short shrift. And there is no evidence, even now, that leaders of either party fully grasp the depth of the crisis, which began long before the official start of the Great Recession in December 2007.

A new study from the Brookings Institution tells us that the largest and fastest-growing population of poor people in the U.S. is in the suburbs. You don’t hear about this from the politicians who are always so anxious to tell you, in between fund-raisers and photo-ops, what a great job they’re doing. From 2000 to 2008, the number of poor people in the U.S. grew by 5.2 million, reaching nearly 40 million. That represented an increase of 15.4 percent in the poor population, which was more than twice the increase in the population as a whole during that period.

The study does not include data from 2009, when so many millions of families were just hammered by the recession. So the reality is worse than the Brookings figures would indicate.

Job losses, stagnant or reduced wages over the past decade, and the loss of home equity when the housing bubble burst have combined to take a horrendous toll on families who thought they had done all the right things and were living the dream. A great deal of that bleeding is in the suburbs. The study, compiled by the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, said, “Suburbs gained more than 2.5 million poor individuals, accounting for almost half of the total increase in the nation’s poor population since 2000.”

Democrats in search of clues as to why voters are unhappy may want to take a look at the report. In 2008, a startling 91.6 million people — more than 30 percent of the entire U.S. population — fell below 200 percent of the federal poverty line, which is a meager $21,834 for a family of four.

The question for Democrats is whether there is anything that will wake them up to their obligation to extend a powerful hand to ordinary Americans and help them take the government, including the Supreme Court, back from the big banks, the giant corporations and the myriad other predatory interests that put the value of a dollar high above the value of human beings.

The Democrats still hold the presidency and large majorities in both houses of Congress. The idea that they are not spending every waking hour trying to fix the broken economic system and put suffering Americans back to work is beyond pathetic. Deficit reduction is now the mantra in Washington, which means that new large-scale investments in infrastructure and other measures to ease the employment crisis and jump-start the most promising industries of the 21st century are highly unlikely.

What we’ll get instead is rhetoric. It’s cheap, so we can expect a lot of it.

Those at the bottom of the economic heap seem all but doomed in this environment. The Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston put the matter in stark perspective after analyzing the employment challenges facing young people in Chicago: “Labor market conditions for 16-19 and 20-24-year-olds in the city of Chicago in 2009 are the equivalent of a Great Depression-era, especially for young black men.”

The Republican Party has abandoned any serious approach to the nation’s biggest problems, economic or otherwise. It may be resurgent, but it’s not a serious party. That leaves only the Democrats, a party that once championed working people and the poor, but has long since lost its way.

from the NY times...Bob Herbert

[stilltrucking]

"Democracies are based on the proposition that power is very dangerous and that it is extremely important not to let any one man or any one small group have too much power for too long a time."

Ibid

[mtmynd]

That's a good article by Bob Herbert. Thanks for posting, Hes'...

I wish that more people understood, more people who have some level of power to help with the mess this country is in. But I feel that those who may assist are as confused as those at the bottom of the ladder.. confused at how close to that bottom they really are - just a payday or two from bankruptcy before they find themselves in the streets.

I've given so much thought to this crisis that it tires me out. I know that sounds ridiculous only because if I ever had an answer that could wipe away all the problems, knowing my background and all, nobody would listen. Don't you feel that way? Kind of the last straw situation where helplessness is necessary before we can look up and see the light.

We, as Americans, just may be the one's at fault for our own condition. It was Walt Kelly's Pogo who famously said: ""We have met the enemy and he is us." But like the good folks we believe ourselves to be, we cannot fully embrace that we brought on our own problems.

How many went out during the stampede for homes brought on by low mortgage rates only to find that there is no free ticket to riches as so many citizens thought that the skies had opened up and Gawd himself gave those that believed money from heaven to buy property to resell one month or one year later at a fabulous profit that would put the smartest of us in big SUV's and even a Hummer!

I could not help but feel a sense of entitlement to so many people that jumped without thinking into the delirium that affected so many people... people who felt they deserved this instant gratification which quick and easy money was sure to give... and did give to many for a short time.

Sure, the mortgage companies and the banks were just as ridiculous in giving out loans to anyone that could write their name on a contract without first checking on the people's ability to pay the loan back. But these same lenders wanted to be a part of the quick and easy... money to burn, money to wipe their ass without the stench... money to make them into images that never were them to begin with.

America was a world of excess that held nobody accountable. A world of credit that seemed limitless, no boundaries, nobody to warn us and nobody willing to listen if there was. We were somebody and we lived the part like some deranged Hollywood character in a cheap movie playing Mr. Big.

So all that comes crumbling down as fast as it was propped up and propped up it was... with a soon to be realized urgency by banks, mortgage companies and any other money lenders who knew they had gone too far and cheated and lied like kids caught with their pockets full of stolen candy, it wasn't their fault that those people couldn't pay back their loans... no sirree! They knew they couldn't pay but they signed the papers anyway. It wasn't their fault... no way!

And so to compound the disaster, we had to confront lies and cheats and thievery to boot as if good old fashioned greed wasn't enough. No, we have to add to the list lies and cheats that just as soon would swindle their mothers out of their savings as look you straight in the eye and swear "this is a good deal!" knowing it's just another scheme to make money.

America is at fault. It was that clever American ingenuity that devised those cheap loans. It was American ingenuity that took the goodness out of capitalism and substituted greed and thievery to milk as much as they could out of other Americans, in the land the free and the home of the brave. Fuck nationalism! Give money, motherfucker... that's all that counts and I like to count in millions.

We stole from ourselves until we tossed ourselves out into the streets. We had no choice. The party was over and we still have the god-awful hangover looming over us like a dark cloud. We are unable to see straight with our phara drugs and illicit drugs, blind from excess pain relievers and booze.

But the Corporations are to share the blame. They aren't off the hook. They were responsible for moving factories out of the country to make more profit to send their Wall Street shares higher and higher at the expense of fellow Americans willing to work if offered a job. This Corporate addiction to shares the Stock Market has subtly corrupted the country at large... how many citizens are invested in Wall Street..? It's just another game to make more money for the wealthy at the expense of many. But that, my fellow Americans, is what our system is... not true Democracy, not fair play, not share the blame, not anything short of Profit for Gain at any expense including bribing our government officials with riches that will buy them freedom from longing.

We are all to blame in one way or another. And now we have to pay the piper.... the loans are due and screw you. There is no forgiveness this time... it's too expensive.

[enough...]

[stilltrucking]

I wish that more people understood, more people who have some level of power to help with the mess this country is in.

Have you tried wishing on a star?

[mtmynd]

When I wish upon a star,
makes no difference how very far
I see that star wink back at me.

[stilltrucking]

I had to take a psychological profile test to get a job with Yellow Freight. One of the questions was "I know why starts twinkle" T or F.
Crazy mike told me I got an overdeveloped wish bone and not enough backbone.

Well enough about me.

Lets talk about technology and the truth


Listening to Aldous Huxley today, talking about how technology has learned to manipulate people. Nothing new under the sun I have heard it said.

We going to see bigf money spent on some slick ads come the elections. Money is energy I heard a Buddhist say.

[mtmynd]

"The times they are a'changin'.." R. "Zimmy" Zimmerman

never seems to slow down. i reckon hu'manity has a lot of learning left to do before those times stop changin' so damn much.

do the stars twinkle?

[stilltrucking]

Twinkle twinkle little star

Another question I got wrong was

"People can often feel my power" T. F.

I would like to settle my account with reality.

But I can't. I would like to lock everything up in certainties, to connect every dot. Poor big sad ape, I still got to sit and wonder.
Seems like things are always changing, but the rate of change is getting faster. So it seems to me.

Hard for me to read the NY Times anymore. I still do but with more skepticism.

[Arcadia]

Am I a corporation?

some too monolitic I maybe are corporations too, who knows?. You??, no!!


What can I do about these things?

sure you´ll know what to do!

[stilltrucking]

Ten Four Veronica

The"United Snakes" of America been having papist plots for ever since we broke away from Canada. Five of those supreme court judges are Catholic. Well actually six of them are, the sixth one is a woman so she don't count.

Everything is peachy here, except everyone is nervous about the recent rumors that a famous politician is cheating on his wife.

[Doreen Peri]

The way I always understood it is that, by definition, a corporation is a distinct entity separate from the identities of those who hold office in the corporation. This is why corporations first were created so that when a group of people decide to go into business, they can form an entity/identity separate from themselves ..... by incorporating.

This entity/identity (the corporation itself) has its own legal rights, similar to a human being's legal rights.

By incorporating, the people who hold office in the corporation won't have to lose their homes and their life savings should the corporation fail or go bankrupt.

I learned this in history class.

Plus, when I was married, my husband at the time and his partners established a corporation for his business. They incorporated. And I'm awfully glad they did because otherwise, when the business failed, I would have lost my home and all of my savings.

To give the corporation its own separate identity is a good thing, in my opinion.

This is nothing new, btw. This has always been the definition of corporations throughout history... from the beginning of their legal conception.

There was a good documentary on PBS about corporations not too long ago. If I can find the name of it, I'll post it. I recommend it!